Paul Beaty / Associated PressFirst-year Northern Illinois football coach Dave Doeren coaches in NIU's game earlier this season against Wisconsin.

KALAMAZOO — Their paths never crossed in Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Kansas.

Alex Carder was only 5 years old when Dave Doeren coached there. But Western Michigan University's quarterback and Northern Illinois' first-year head coach are both from the same suburban Kansas City town.

"I remember hearing about that when they actually first got him. I never met him or anything," Carder said this week.

Doeren hadn't even realized the connection.

John A. Lacko / Special to the GazetteWestern Michigan QB Alex Carder rushed for 95 yards on 13 carries last week against Bowling Green, one week after passing for a school-record 479 yards at UConn.

"I hadn’t even looked at that," Doeren said, looking up Carder's bio during his teleconference this week. "Yeah, Shawnee Mission, coached at his high school, sure did. One season (1994)."

Doeren might be coaching Carder this season if circumstances had been different — if former WMU assistant Chris Tabor hadn't been on staff when he was, with a connection to Carder's high school coach, and if former Huskies coach Jerry Kill had gotten the NIU job a year earlier.